This past week, the blogosphere blew up with the 'news' that Nikon was developing a new mirrorless camera. Unfortunately, those reports were entirely based on a translated interview answer by Nikon's president, so we reached out to Nikon for confirmation and an official statement.

They responded.

In a statement sent to DPReview this morning, a Nikon spokesperson said:

"While details are confidential, we can say that we are currently developing new mirrorless products that build upon Nikon's strengths, and offer the performance prospective customers expect, including the ultimate optics performance, image-processing technologies, strength and durability, and operation. "

As with all things 'official' before a product has been released, both statements are vague, but official confirmation from Nikon corporate is a big deal. Nikon hasn't given up on mirrorless; in fact, they're determined to raise the bar in that market.

Further clues can be taken from the original interview quote, translated by a native speaker:

"On the product side, we should compete in the mid-range and high-end DSLR. We aim to be the top in a genre, and earn profits even if sales are down. For a smartphone generation, we put out a very Nikon-ish mirrorless camera which is superior to rivals in quality. Making the best use of industrial lens technology, we would like to overwhelm them in lens quality. On the other hand, we need fun. "

According to Nakayamahanzaemon, the Nikon Rumors commenter who translated the quote, 'Nikon-rashii' which he translated as 'Nikon-ish' refers to a certain Nikon character that makes the company's cameras stand out from other manufacturers.

Does that mean full-frame? Does that mean retro looks a la the Nikon Df? Does that mean a new lens mount? These are the questions we really want answered, but for those answers we will just have to wait. For now, we're content with the official confirmation: Nikon is currently developing new mirrorless cameras.

When Nikon first announced that they were finally entering the Full Frame Interchangeable Lens Mirrorless camera market with the Z6 and Z7 back in August of this year, only the 45. 7MP Z7 was initially available. thephoblographer.com »

Nikon has posted teaser number five for its full-frame mirrorless system that will be announced in just three days. In this one, early users of the camera share their first impressions, and there's also a quick glimpse of an F-mount adapter. dpreview.com »

People is really getting creative trying to picture the exact size and design of the new Nikon FF mirrorless. Based on the leaked teaser image @buildyourcamera made this Nikon Full Frame mirrorless paper model. sonyalpharumors.com »

Two days after publishing a teaser video, Nikon has officially announced the development of its long-awaited full-frame mirrorless system, which will use a new mount. Details are light at this point, with the only product mentioned being an F-mount adapter. dpreview.com »

After wild speculation, Nikon has official announced the development of its new mirrorless lens system, which is expected to be unveiled in mid August.
Along with a press release to journalists, Nikon shared a teaser video showcasing what is expected to be its new mirrorless camera. digitalrev.com »

Here is the new Nikon Z Full Frame Mirrorless camera. Nikon leaked it through their own website :) via @nikon_mirrorless and mirrorlessrumors. com A post shared by NikonMirrorless (@nikon_mirrorless) on Jul 23, 2018 at 7:35am PDT By mistake Nikon leaked these four images of their new Full Frame mirrorless. sonyalpharumors.com »

Out with the old, in with the new. Nikon has officially discontinued all the existing mirrorless cameras in its Nikon 1 series, which hasn’t seen a new camera since the J5 was announced in April 2015. petapixel.com »

The new Nikon Full Frame mirrorless camera is rumored to have same #SonyA7 size but with better ergonomics. Imagine a mirrorless DF! – #nikon #nikonistas #nikonmirrorless #nikonphoto #nikongear #sonyalpha #sonyalphagear A post shared by NikonMirrorless (@nikon_mirrorless) on Jul 8, 2018 at 11:18pm PDT Some major competition news today: Nikon Japan officially discontinued the Nikon 1 […]
The post Nikon kills their Nikon 1 line and gets ready to launch the first two Full Frame mirrorless (rumored specs). appeared first on sonyalpharumors. sonyalpharumors.com »

The Japanese TV NHK interview Nikon. And the one news that might be interesting for SAr readers is this: Nikon confirmed their new mirrorless system camera will be on market by Spring 2019. So exactly one year from now. sonyalpharumors.com »

It appears that Sony is right, and that Canon and Nikon are furiously racing to bring professional full-frame mirrorless cameras to their customers. The latest word is that Nikon’s mirrorless camera will be released in the current fiscal year. petapixel.com »

Nikon’s upcoming full frame mirrorless camera may not be compatible with F-mount lenses without the use of an additional adapter. A new report suggests that the company has developed a new “Z-mount” for its professional full frame mirrorless system. petapixel.com »

As you have heard, unless you live under a rock, Nikon is working on their professional mirrorless camera system(s) and while nothing is official yet – reports are still getting out here and there giving us tidbits of information about these upcoming mirrorless cameras. thephoblographer.com »

All signs have been pointing in the direction, but Nikon has just seemingly confirmed in a new interview that its upcoming mirrorless camera will contain a full frame sensor. The Chinese website Xitek published an interview with Nikon Imaging Product R&D General Manager Tetsuro Goto, who stated that due to current trends, Nikon must go […] petapixel.com »

Speculation about Nikon’s mirrorless camera ambitions is heating up, and two new patents are adding fuel to the fire. Nikon has patented two new ultra-fast lenses for a full frame mirrorless camera system. petapixel.com »

Photo by Jakob Owens
Nikon users who are out there wishing for a full-frame mirrorless camera from the storied Japanese brand have two more reasons to feel hopeful today. It seems Nikon has filed two new patents for full-frame mirrorless lenses in Japan: one for a Nikon 52mm F0. dpreview.com »

When rumours of new technology hit the internet, camera brands are often quick to distance themselves or deny the rumours completely. So, it took the industry by surprise when just a few days ago several websites reported that Nikon are working on new Mirrorless technology. digitalrev.com »

Nikon generated great deal of excitement this week when the company’s president stated in an interview that Nikon is working on a new mirrorless camera. Now the company has issued another statement confirming that it’s building mirrorless gear that will emphasis performance and quality. petapixel.com »

Statements by Nikon representatives at Photokina hint at further developments of full frame mirrorless camera technology in its future products.
Speaking with several outlets over the course of the event, Nikon’s European Product Group Manager Jordi Brinkman revealed how developments in mirrorless tech had shaped the company’s current outlook. digitalrev.com »

We briefly sat down with Dirk Jasper and Jordi Brinkman from Nikon Europe to get their thoughts on medium-format, mirrorless and and premium compact cameras.
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